What’s going on at the former Barragan’s in Echo Park?

The question has been asked a lot since the longtime Echo Park Mexican restaurant closed in December after the Barragan family sold the Sunset Boulevard location (the Barragan’s in Burbank and Glendale remain open). A new beer and wine license was issued this month for The Lost Knight, which will operate out of the old Barragan’s. But who’s that new owner and what do they have planned?

There might be some clues at the website of Potential, a company that has owned and managed restaurants, bars and nightclubs in Hollywood and other places. The Potential website reveals a restaurant and bar concept for The Lost Knight, which appears to be a modern take on a classic British pub. Is this what Potential has in mind for Echo Park? Alan Moore, the founder of Potential and whose name appears on the beer and wine license for The Lost Knight, told The Eastsider he was not yet ready to talk about what his company has planned for Barragan’s but will be providing more details soon.

35 comments

Ugh, this sounds so out of scope for the neighborhood. Checked out the developer website, and it appears they work with “celebrity nightclubs” and other trashy Hollywood establishments. Definitely not what Echo Park needs or what this neighborhood is all about. Don’t predict this will last long — seems to be a restaurant of the “Urban Taco Fabricator” variety, and we all know how locals feel about that horrendous place!

Would have been nice if Barragan’s sold the building to a local resident/business, but, alas.

Local this! local that?! Loco more like it! So glad you are here to define for us what is best for the “locals”. You’re so helpful and full of deep thoughts and clear expressions of your small mindedness, bias and provinciality. What you are is a bore of the highest level. Congrats!! At least these people are putting their blood sweat tears and cash into the area, fools that they may or not be. You just sit the couch you found on the street shouting into your “local” computer about your “local” outrage at the perceived affronts to the “locals”. “Out of scope”? WTF does that mean. Too big? too fancy? To many pretty people? Maybe it would’ve been nice if you had bought Barragans so we could see just what this “neighborhood is all about”.

BTW I have it on good authority that its going to be a sports bar. So there is that “local” enough?

There is nothing wrong with expressing disappointment in a local business being turned over to outside developers with no stake or vested interest in the area they seek to run a business in. This isn’t a project by an individual looking to turn their hard work into something for the Echo Park community. Rather, this restaurant is being funded and built by a group of outsiders who create Hollywood nightclubs. How is that beneficial to Echo Park? This is “out of scope” for the neighborhood because it’s the type of business whose aesthetic and “branding” would be more popular in a more consumerist neighborhood like Santa Monica or West Hollywood.

But go ahead and rip apart commenters who see the problems this business will bring. When this place opens up and it’s not a divey sports bar and is, instead, an over-decorated, expensive “nightclub” spot, don’t come whining here.

Um, some of us are still upset about Mohawk Bend. Can’t park in front of my own home when I return from work in the evenings. Not to mention, MB is a total failure, locally speaking. I can’t name one person I know in EP who enjoys MB. Most of us avoid it like the plague. Horrible food, horrible service. Hollywood types are bussed in via party bus to eat at MB — brings an unruly, rude transient crowd who are very disrespectful of the neighborhood.

so the hollywood nightlife companies are moving full bore into EP. sorry, cool kids,..if your neighborhood wasn’t already officially over, it certainly is now. i see chango becoming a starbucks, and fix a coffee bean…

Maaaaan fuck that. The only possible good thing about this is that maybe maaaaaaybe this place will draw some of the crowd away from The Gold Room and folks can actually walk around comfortably in there. Doubt it, but its nice to dream.

Wonder if they still own the parking lot across the street.. The whole thing sounds dreadful. I’m guessing $25 for fish and chips, not including beer or tip. Plus valet parking. Sounds cozy and charming, just like the brits.

Amen Brother. I wonder sometimes when I’m out and about in the neighborhood just who these “locals” on this site are. I’ve never actually met anybody with these provincial and totally non constructive opinions. I guess they don’t have an money to go anywhere but Patra and I don’t really hang out at Gold Room.

Seems a bit tacky, but if it turns out to be a decent place for typical pub grub and beer, and a comfortable place to watch Dodger games, I’m all for it. It would be much better than another semi-fancy small plate “farm-to-table” type restaurant that’s better in concept than in execution.

Despite it being there for a long time, it’s not like Barragan’s was the bastion of local culture or class….it wouldn’t be hard to improve upon that place.

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